Export Early Receive Date and Cut Off

Early Receive Date (ERD) is the earliest possible date by which to return a container to the terminal.

Cut Off (CO) date is the latest possible date by which to return a load to the terminal.

Shipper Warehouse is a place where goods get loaded into a container. Prior to arriving at the shipper's Warehouse, the trucker picks up an empty container at the depot.

A Rail Billing is a request that is sent by the trucking company to an SS line so that it can authorize the rail company to accept a container.

When an export load is returned to the rail Terminal, the ss line verifies that the container is being delivered on or after the ERD, and before the CO. If the trucker submits a rail billing within the ERD and CO time frame then when the driver will arrive at the rail terminal the rail will accept the load. If no rail billing in place, the rail will reject the in-gate.

The SS line uses the ERD and CO dates to manage the flow of containers at the port of loading, so meeting these important deadlines is very important. Having loads sitting at the port of loading for several days prior to loading on the vessel results in high demurrage costs (port storage) for the ss line, so the ss line plans in-gate of loads just in time to minimize load dwelling at the port of loading.

Containers should not be loaded prior to the ERD, or else the Terminal will not accept them. If containers are delivered after the CO date, the rail terminal will not be allowed rail in-gate, therefore it will not be loaded onto a scheduled train, resulting in delays in shipping and incurring additional costs, booking will have to be rolled to the next vessel so that the new ERD will allow rail billing, therefore allow in-gate.

The ERD and CO are determined by the SS line for each step in the intermodal chain. Each terminal has its own ERD and CO dates, to ensure that containers are delivered just in time for shipment.

The truck driver is responsible for passing onto dispatch the rail billing information so that dispatch can submit the rail billing to the SS line.

Before a truck driver is scheduled for container delivery, verify with the SS line that the ERD and CO dates are still recorded correctly in the TZ web application, as the dates may be changed by the SS line.

Example of rail billing request flow:

Step 1

The truck takes an empty container from the depot to the shipper's warehouse for loading.

Step 2

After the container is loaded, the truck driver inputs the following information in the TZ mobile app:

Seal Number Container Number Container Weight Container Piece Count

Truck drivers can contact TZ dispatchers via the TZ mobile app, or by calling by phone.

Step 3

Dispatch sends a rail billing request to the steamship line.

Step 4

Dispatch verifies the rail billing is posted at the rail Terminal.

Step 5

The truck driver in-gates the export load to the rail Terminal.

pageRail Billing (Export Loads)